External Evaluation of the Beaver Dam Unified School District Project Immersion Into Inquiry (i3)

The Immersion into Inquiry project targets students and teachers of science in grades 3-12. Components include:
a) widespread implementation of the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework to guide standards-driven curricular, assessment, and instructional design with a focus on teaching for understanding;
b) integrating a true scientific inquiry-based approach to instruction that engages students in “doing science” through hands-on and minds-on learning;
c) embedding literacy in science through writing, reading content, and use of science notebooks; and
d) launching the use of Lesson Study in which teachers model the use of inquiry as a systemic approach for teaching improvement and knowledge building.

Project co-directors will conduct an internal evaluation, while an external evaluation will be conducted by researcher John Gugerty.
The evaluation will assess the impact on student achievement in science; teacher content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and instructional skills; curricular alignment with state standards; overall implementation integrity; and long-term outcomes on student achievement.